Buffalo Wallow Races 2009

Before this race began I had decided that I would run at goal marathon pace (8:00/mile) for the first ten miles and then really push to get low 7:00s for the last three miles. Well, a call from my "coach" on Wednesday changed all that. He thought I should race it and try to blast my PR. He has been slightly injured, so he wanted to pace me to a 7:40 pace half. This seems a little lofty, but my training has gone really well and according to a race predictor, this would put me on target for a 3:30 full marathon.

This half is the hardest half marathon course in the state according to my running club website. There are three major hills (see map and click "view elevation") and several rolling hills on the back side of the loop.



Another caveat to the story: Ben decided to run the half as well. Without having run since the last race. Without having run farther than 10 miles in his whole life. Without having run that distance in about 3.5 years. I think he has a death wish.

We woke up around 7 on Saturday morning and got ready to head out of Buffalo Springs Lake. We picked up our bib numbers, chatted with a few friends about stuff like our P90X workouts, and warmed up a little bit. It wasn't too hard to warm up since it was already getting into the high 50s. I think it was in the low 40s last year; and slightly cloudy. Today was all sun. By the end of this race it was in the low 70s.

The race got started about 10-15 min late because there had been a registration glitch. About 30 people who had preregistered did not actually get registered. After all that was taken care of I started running with my "coach" and five other people (one of which is a woman) from my running group. I started scoping out the other females that were ahead of us in this first mile. I saw who we'll call Black Shirt and Green Gloves. We finished our first mile in 7:52.37.

The next mile was smooth sailing at 7:39.91, but we could see the first hill looming in the distance. We passed Black Shirt at the first water station, but then Pink Hat passed us as we went up the hill. Coach kept trying to make me keep my heart rate below 182 as we made our climb. It got to 190. This mile was done in 7:58.32.

We passed Pink Hat as we coasted down the other side and then entered my favorite part of the course. The back side winds through a small neighborhood with little rolling hills the whole way. I could still see Green Gloves which reminded me of how I kept an eye on jon during the race last year. These three miles were completed in 7:22.73, 7:34.29, and 7:35.57.

Then the second hill. This is looks like it would be the hardest hill according to the elevation chart, but it doesn't faze me as much as the first/third hill. We ran this hill mile in 8:13.61. Coach made me climb it slowly and several people passed us, but we passed them after cresting the top.

The next two miles were finished in 7:29.19 and 7:17.42. At this point another of our group joined us on his bike. He's been injured and recently had a minor surgery so he came along to give us some encouragement. We could still see Green Gloves in the distance, but I felt like we were gaining on her. We were only about 37 seconds behind her when we could first see the hill. At the bottom of the hill we were 25 second behind. This mile was finished in 7:51.49 and my heart rate reached its maximum for this race of 192.

I was slowly reeling in Green Gloves when it hit me. I was tired! Coach was talking too much and several of our group had either dropped off or run ahead of us. All that was left was me, the other woman, and the "coach." I was starting to wheeze a little, but didn't feel too too bad, so I kept pushing. Miles eleven and twelve were finished in 7:39.0 and 7:32.93. We caught Green Gloves at the end of the twelfth mile and passed her, but then she passed us again.

At this point I had conceded to get third for the women. Green Gloves was about 5 seconds ahead of us and the woman running with me seemed really strong. I felt like I was struggling a lot more than either of them. With about a half mile to go we caught Green Gloves again. This time she had no answer for us and Coach looked back and said she actually started walking. So now I thought I would get second.

We turned the corner and saw we had about a quarter mile left. My friend on his bike really wanted to see a race to the finish between us women. The other girl started cramping and gasping and he told her that it's the end of the race. Who cares if she's hurting?! Then he told me to pick it up! Pump those arms! Use those P90X biceps! I really dug deep and finished the last full mile in 7:17.77 and the 0.1 (0.24 according to my GPS watch) in 1:29.94. My total time was 1:40:55 which is 5 minutes better than last year. And, oh yeah, I won for the women and got 20th overall!

Coach was very pleased and has told me that very rarely do you get a race like this where you don't think you could have gone one second faster. I am really pleased with my performance and what this means for the marathon that is only four weeks away. I can smell a 3:30!!!

After I had made my rounds talking to friends and meeting new ones (including Green Gloves who I commended her on her performance and thanked her for a good race) I started looking for Ben to come in. I expected that he'd be done around 2:10 or 2:20, but didn't know if that would hold up since it was pretty hot. Well, at 2:10:21 he crossed the finish line and got 98 out of 144 runners. He doesn't know it yet, but he's turning into a runner. I think that maybe his competitive side might prevail and get him to run more regularly. I'm okay with that as long as he doesn't beat me!